Director Michael HarrisonretiresOn the retirement of Michael Harrison, Dame Gillian Beer, a long time supporter of Kettle’s Yard and former Chair of the Friends of Kettle’s Yard takes a look back at his extraordinary work here.

Kettle’s Yard wonderfully encompasses diverse moods and activities. The house makes room for serene wandering; the music programme is exuberant as well as intense; the childrens’ workshops are marked by eager concentration; the shows in the gallery experiment across media and ask us to ask new questions. And those who come are all ages, from near and far, sometimes under profound life pressures, sometimes just opening up to the pleasures of the visual world. That flexibility, welcoming first-time visitors and those who return again and again for new experiences, derives first from the ethos of Jim Ede himself. But it has been augmented and sustained by Michael Harrison’s work during his nineteen years as Director, even as visitor numbers have doubled since the development he has overseen. Keeping a place intimate and innovative while it expands and speaks to broader communities is an art in itself, one at which Michael excels.

I’ve been fortunate to be involved with the Friends over the period of Michael’s presence, including ten years as Chair of that friendly organisation. So I have had the chance to see something of the workings behind the scenes and to observe ideas coming to fulfilment (and occasionally to frustration). At the core of the place is the house with its homely, elegant mix of paintings, crockery, furniture, and pots, a house where lives have been lived, and works of art find their place. And Michael, the staff tell me, is as happy taking the tea around the house for the invigilators as he is installing a new exhibition – or else teaching successive members of staff just how to plump up the cushions on that long white sofa! He always has time for everyone. He also has a tonic sense of how to renew the experience of the house, keeping the place alert through installations and through encouraging contemporary artists to engage with its presence, often in quirky and challenging ways (all that broken crockery on the grand piano, and suddenly pink walls).

The gallery, under his guidance, has proved the perfect complement to that rich centre. Here, interdisciplinary work thrives, experiments are carried out, and new as well as established artists join Kettle’s Yard on fellowships. One of Michael’s special gifts to the place has been his network of relationships with practising artists along the length of their career, not only when they are a novelty. This has allowed Kettle’s Yard to sustain long-lasting values and has brought artists back to the gallery to exhibit at very different times of their lives, witness the current Bridget Riley show. Nor has he concentrated solely on living artists but has reminded us of how much we owe, for example, to William Nicholson as well as his son Ben Nicholson.

Among the major new projects that Michael has overseen has been the New Music series; past fellows and associates have included John Woolrich, Richard Baker, the Camberwell Composers Collective and, now, Stephen Montague. The series has gone from strength to strength and audiences have grown with it. Alongside that the Thursday evening chamber concerts unerringly discover fresh performers who rapidly turn into established stars. To listen to music at Kettle’s Yard expands our responses and our pleasures.

Under Michael’s direction Kettle’s Yard has greatly increased its education programme for both children and adults, and it will do so further in the exciting new development. Michael has played a crucial role in making that development not only feasible but an actuality. We can be grateful to him not only for all he has achieved during his tenure as Director but for all he has made possible for the future of Kettle’s Yard.

kettle’s yard and friends’ news | autumn 2011

Completing Kettle’s YardWe are pleased to thank all those who have already contributed to the Development Appeal:

Guild of Benefactors

Heritage Lottery Fund

The Vice-Chancellor’s Circle

The Monument Trust, Clore Duffield Foundation, Edlis-Neeson Foundation.

Major Funders

Daphne & Micky Astor, The Marquess of Cholomondeley, Gerrard Griffin, The Quercus Trust, The Foyle

Foundation, Alfred Harrison, The Hepworth Estate, Hazlitt Holland Hibbert, Ruth Rattenbury, The Sir

Siegmund Warburg Voluntary Settlement, Dr Michael & Mrs Margaret West, J Paul Getty Charitable Trust.

Major Donors

Mrs V C Albutt, Nicholas & Diana Baring, the late Mr & Mrs Barlow-Poole, Professor Dame Gillian Beer &

Professor John Beer, John & Jean Botts, The Estate of Francis Davison, Dick Chapman & Ben Duncan,

The Paul & Louise Cooke Endowment, The Dovehouse Trust, Dr Shirley Ellis, Philomena Guillebaud, Philippa

Hill, Caryl & John Hubbard, John Lewis plc, Mark & Liza Loveday, Dr Christopher Mallinson, Dr Alan Munro,

Christopher Penn, Louisa & Tristram Riley-Smith, The Rothschild Foundation, John & Jenny Talbot.

Patrons

Annely Juda Gallery, The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, The late Enid & Malcolm Boston, Sir Alan

Bowness, Clare College, Valerie Clark, Dr David & Mrs Ros Cleevely, Eve Corder, Rosemary Davidson, John

& Angela Elliott, Carolyn Emery & Robert Patterson, Christopher & Rosalind Floyd, Hilo Colour Printers

Ltd, The Estate of Kenneth Martin, Mr Duncan & Mrs Lisa Robinson, the late Professor Jean Rudduck,

Mr & Mrs Jonathan Scott, Dr Elizabeth Simpson, Mary Anne Stevens, The Stuart Heath Charitable

Settlement, Evadne Wallis, Michael Walton, Graham & Nina Williams, Dr Paul Zuckerman.

Donors

John Ady, Dilyara Allakhverdova, The Archer Charitable Trust, Mr AR Pargeter, The Friends of the BADA

Trust, Clodagh & Jonathan Barker, Anna Bianchi, The Broughton House Gallery, Mr R Cantrill & Professor

Eilis Ferran, Sir Anthony Caro, Penelope & Sebastian Carter, Sir Charles & Lady Chadwyck-Healey, The

Clarke Charitable Trust, The Timothy Colman Charitable Trust, The Duke of Devonshire’s Charitable

We are delighted to announce the extension of BRIDGET RILEY colour, stripes, planes and curves until the end of the year. The exhibition, which explores the last 30 years of her career, has proved a great success and we look forward to giving even more visitors the opportunity to enjoy the show.

In 2012, we will begin the Heritage Lottery Funded building work to develop a new education wing for Kettle’s Yard. Despite building work, we’ll be keeping active in 2012. While the gallery will be at least partly closed, the house will remain open as much as possible, the programme of events will be as busy as usual and we will take advantage of the unique opportunities offered by this period of development. We are particularly excited that we will be working with artists on new projects. For the most up-to-date information please visit the web site and join our e-news if you want to be kept regularly informed.

Trust 1949, Mr & Mrs AJ Eade, the family & friends of the late

Sue Finch, Mr Lyn & Mrs Clare Flook, Mr & Mrs John Fowler,

Nan Fowler, Ms Victoria Goodbody, Mr David Hall, Grant Hay,

Penny & Nicholas Heath, Professor Antony & Mrs Marjorie

Hewish, Nicole & Edmund Hubbard, The ISA Charity, Mr & Mrs

Howard Jackson, The John S Cohen Foundation, The Keatley

Trust, The D G Marshall of Cambridge Trust , Mr R Keeling &

Ms H Melville-Smith, Jeremy Lewison & Caroline Schuck, Simon

Lunn, Richard Paice, Allison Pearson & Anthony Lane, Derek

Pine, Lady Cynthia Postan, the friends of the late Rose Rands,

The Raven Charitable Trust, Dr Alan & Mrs Mary Rodger, the late

HW Rothschild, Ms Susan Royce, Osborne Samuel, Mr Edward

Sanderson, Dr John Sedgwick, The Seven Pillars of Wisdom

Trust, Dr NA Silverston MBE, Lady Solti, Dr Richard Staughton,

Evadne Wallis, Michael Walton, The SD Whitehead Charitable

Trust.

Supporters

Gail Abbott & Ronald Pile, Julian Agnew, Mark Bedini, Tony

Bradshaw & Sarah le Fort, Meg Brian, Professor & Mrs Britter, Dr

& Mrs Ivan Brown, Professor M J & Mrs E B Budd, Ben Burdett,

Dr Colin & Dr Carole Fraser, Mrs Carol Davies, Dr T R Dening,

Hugh Duberly CBE, Daniel Edwards & Nicola Barnacle, Julie

Flower, Tamara Fogle, Miss Virginia Forbes, Mr Julian Gardner,

Mr & Mrs Richard Garnett, Mr PN Gerard, Jane Gooch, Mr Peter

Hambro, Mr Nick & Mrs Diana Hartley, Mrs Carmen Hassett &

the late Edward Hassett, Adam Hills, Molly Hogg, Mrs Rosemary

Huggins, Lady Lever of Manchester, Dr Y Levine, Anne Lonsdale,

Purdy Hicks Gallery, The Lord Renfrew of Kaimsthorn, Mrs

Irina Rozhdova, Romilly Saumarez Smith, Ms Rosanna Wilson

Stephens, Professor Dame Marilyn Strathern, Mr & Mrs A Styan,

Alan Swerdlow, Richard Sword, Dr Jim Tait, Mrs Angela Taunt,

Martin Thompson, Maggie Thornton, Mr George Loudon Esq,

Kristine and Lisa Ngan.

Bridget Riley exhibition extended & coming up in 2012

As we say goodbye to Michael Harrison, we welcome Andrew Nairne who joined us on 7 November as the new Director. Andrew is taking up this post at a time when Kettle’s Yard is poised to begin work on a new education wing after a highly successful appeal.

For Andrew Nairne this is a return to Kettle’s Yard where he began his working life in 1984-85. Since then he has had a distinguished career in contemporary art galleries and arts administration as Deputy Director of the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham (1985-86), Exhibitions Director at the Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow (1986-93), Director of Visual Arts with the Scottish Arts Council (1993-97), Director of Dundee Contemporary Arts (1997-2001), Director of Modern Art Oxford (2001-08), and, since 2008, Executive Director, Arts for Arts Council England. In this role he led the development of Arts Council England’s 10 year Strategic Framework for the Arts, ‘Achieving great art for everyone’, published in 2010.

As a curator and gallery director Andrew has worked with artists at the forefront of the contemporary visual arts including: Miroslaw Balka, Yael Bartana, Candice Breitz, Janet Cardiff / Georges Bures Miller, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Tony

Cragg, Daniel Buren, Olafur Eliassion, Tracey Emin, Callum Innes, Jannis Kounellis, Jim Lambie, Nalini Malani, Tracey Moffatt, Ernesto Neto, Mike Nelson, Katie Paterson, Katerina Seda, Fiona Tan and Huang Yong Ping.

Andrew Nairne said:“I am greatly

looking forward to joining Kettle’s Yard as Director at an exciting time of development.

“Working within one of the world’s most outstanding universities, and

through creating new partnerships, there is an opportunity to further enhance Kettle’s Yard’s pioneering exhibitions and activities and to fulfill the potential offered by the forthcoming extension.”

Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, The Vice Chancellor of Cambridge University said:

“Cambridge University recognises the importance of the arts in education and within society. We are therefore delighted that someone as skilled and enthusiastic as Andrew Nairne is taking on the mantle of Kettle’s Yard”.

Alan Davey, Chief Executive, Arts Council England said:“Andrew brought a wealth of experience and insight from

a distinguished career in contemporary arts administration and curating when he joined us in 2008. He has helped lead the Arts Council through some significant challenges and changes, but his key legacy is the development of ‘Achieving great art for everyone’. He leaves us with a strong vision for the arts in the next ten years.

“And our loss is very much Kettle’s Yard’s gain. It’s great news that Andrew will be taking the helm at such an exciting time for the gallery. His experience of working with artists at regional, national and international level, and of community and education programmes, make him ideally placed to oversee the development of their new education wing.

“I’d also like to thank Michael Harrison for his dedication and work over the years, which have seen Kettle’s Yard achieve international renown, and to wish him well for his retirement.”

Artists who have given work in support of the Appeal

Helena Almeida, Daphne Astor, Ella Astor, David Austen, Claire Barclay,

Phyllida Barlow, Regine Bartsch, Zachary Beer, Anna Bianchi, Karla Black, John

Blackburn, Marcia Blakenham, Scott Blaser, Rose de Borman, Gary Breeze,

Michael Brick, Lady Buxton, Alex Calinescu, IC Carr, Sebastian Carter, Tony

Carter, Natasha Chambers, Stephen Chambers, Michelle Charles, Paul Coldwell,

Elizabeth Cope, Michael Craig-Martin, Alison Crowther, Natasha Daintry, Carys

Davies, Guy Denning, Jane Dixon, Tom Dixon, Sarah Dobai, Karen Downing,

Clara Drummond, Bob Edgeson, Joan Edlis, Emily Faccini, Kathryn Faulkner,

Lizzie Farey, Paul Feiler, Sotis Filippides, Tom Fry, Mal Fryer, Vanessa Gardiner,

Annabel Gault, Loveday Gaynor, John Golding, Antony Gormley, Alexander

Gough, Dicky Graham, Anders Gramer, Sarah Greenall, Kip Gresham, Sir

Nicholas Grimshaw, Maggi Hambling, CA Haplin, Mercury Hare, Jon Harris, Noel

Hart, Rebecca Harvey, Mona Hatoum, Claude Heath, Kirtsen Hecktermann,

Andrew Hewish, Maud Hewlings, Jason Hicklin, Nicola Hicks, Adam Hills,

Damien Hirst, Alex Hirtzel, Vanessa Hodgkinson, Zena Holloway, Marguerite

Horner, John Hubbard, Max Hubbard, Katie Hughes, James Hugoin, Callum

Innes, Hannah James, Neal Jones, Anish Kapoor, Tom Karen, David Kefford,

Linda Karshan, Lida Cardozo Kindersley, Paul Kindersley, Issam Kourbaj,

Catherine Kurtz, Matthew Lane Sanderson, Tory Lawrence, Barry Lewis, Ffiona

Lewis, Alex Lowery, Andrew Logan, Peter Logan, David MacIlwaine, Nadine

Mahoney, Chris Mallinson, Danny Markey, Lizzie McCaughan, Sarah McCredie,

Duncan MacAskill, Ian McKeever, Ioana Miller, Lisa Milroy, Hilary Morton,

Graham Murrell, David Nash, Emma Newson, Kate Norman, Elspeth Owen,

John de Pauley, John Pawson, Bella Peralta, Bryan Pearce, Nicola Philipson, Marc

Quinn, Peter Randall-Page, Alan Reynolds, Ray Richardson, Bridget Riley, Sarah

Riley-Smith, Julian Sainsbury, Michael Sandle, Jack Shanahan, Yuko Shiraishi,

Jamie Shovlin, Francesca Simon, Sue Skeen, Kitty Stirling, Daniel Sturgis, Patricia

Swannell, Max Tannahill, Debbie Urquhart, Andrew Vass, Edmund de Waal,

Shane Waltener, Robi Walters, David Ward, Jane Waterhouse, Alison Wilding,

Paul Winstanley, Janine Woods, Verdi Yahooda, Paul Zuckerman.

Kettle’s Yard gratefully acknowledges those who have made smaller

donations, pledged legacies, or asked to remain anonymous.

If you would like to know more about the planned development or how you

can help the appeal please contact: Kathryn Westmore on 01223 748100.

Andrew Nairne appointed as new Director of Kettle’s Yard

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Kettle’s Yard Castle Street, Cambridge CB3 0AQ01223 748100 • www.kettlesyard.co.uk

Kettle’s Yard is grateful to the following who have recently supported our programme: The Friends of Kettle’s Yard, Arts Council England, The Higher Education Funding Council, Heritage Lottery Fund, The Isaac Newton Trust, Cambridge City Council, Cambridgeshire County Council, The Henry Moore Foundation, The PRS Foundation, The Holst Foundation, The RVW Trust, The Faculty of Music, Dr Shirley Ellis, John and Jenny Talbot, and many other individual donors. This newsletter is made possible by a grant from the Friends of Kettle’s Yard.

TO REQUEST THE NEWSLETTER IN AN ALTERNATIVE FORMAT PLEASE CALL 01223 748100

Christmas shoppingDon’t forget to visit the shop in the gallery at Kettle’s Yard especially for a great selection of Christmas gifts. This year’s Christmas card (pictured) is a detail from one of the most loved works in the house at Kettle’s Yard, David Jones’ Flora in Calix Light, 1950. David Jones was a close friend of Jim Ede and gave this watercolour to Jim as a present in 1951 (£5 for a pack of five, Friends’ price £4.25). The shop also stocks a range of art related gifts, books and prints.

Many of these items, including gift membership of the Friends of Kettle’s Yard can now be bought online on the estore, see: www.kettlesyard.co.uk/shop

Eastern Pavilions print portfolioKettle’s Yard is proud to be part of Eastern Pavilions a unique collaboration between 12 arts organisations based in the Eastern region. Over the past summer, each organisation worked with an artist with strong links to the region to produce a unique limited edition print. Kettle’s Yard worked with Ryan Gander, an internationally acclaimed artist whose “Locked Room Scenario” near Old Street in London is Artangel’s latest public art commission. Gander is based in Suffolk, and the print he produced is based on the graphic red line used by Microsoft Word to highlight unrecognised words. Gander’s print is one of 12 prints in the Eastern Pavilions portfolio, which will be on sale for £1000 from Kettle’s Yard and other arts organisations in the region from the end of October. The portfolio is great value and a wonderful way to start collecting contemporary art.

Look out for a series of events focused on supporting and collecting contemporary artists’ work across the region this Autumn. Please visit the Eastern Pavilions website: www.easternpavilions.org for full details of the print portfolio and associated events.

The artists are: Adam Bridgland, Andy Holden, Coco Crampton, Colin Self, Demian Flores, Elizabeth Price, Frances Kearney, Gareth Bayliss, Kate Owens, Nigel Henderson, Ryan Gander, Tris Vonna-Michell.

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Turkish Delights The Friends in Istanbul

The week in Istanbul was my first experience of a Friends of Kettle’s Yard expedition: it was superb in every respect. Martin Thompson’s and Louisa Riley-Smith’s reconnaissance produced a wonderfully positioned, friendly and comfortable hotel, a busy but not over-crowded programme of the ancient, old and contemporary, well-informed guides, led by the delightful perfectionist Arzu, and enough social events, and possible additions – dervishes, hamams, gastronomic incursions to Asia - to satisfy us all. As many of us sat in the roof terrace restaurant on the first night, our eyes were held by the floodlit fabled shapes of the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia on the hill directly above us, while in the other direction lights moved on the waters of the Bosphorus, and cranes (perhaps) flew overhead. Here we were surely in Yeats’s Holy City of Byzantium, where ‘A starlit or a moonlit dome disdains/All that man is …’. The impact of this magical arrival never left us through the succession of unfolding events, as the faithful fifty followed Martin’s panama hat or Louisa’s scarf across thronged squares and courtyards, through tunnels and markets, on to coaches and boats, even, on one memorable and scarcely credible occasion, into the same rush-hour tram.

The most striking aspect for me was the clash and conjunction of the old and the contemporary. The city built on seven hills, the Golden Horn, the Galata bridge and tower seen from the Pierre Loti café near Eyüp cemetery, the Bosphorus pointing north to the heart of Russia and south to the Aegean and the Mediterranean – you are at the crossroads of successive civilisations and competing religions, and their signs are everywhere. How right, in retrospect, Martin and Louisa were to make our first visits the Blue Mosque and Haghia Sophia. Their sheer scale, and the contrasting arts that decorate them, silence, or at least subdue, the thousands of visitors. As the day proceeded, the scale became more intimate – Byzantine mosaics, frescos, scenes from the life of the Virgin Mary. Driving or walking through the packed but friendly streets – ‘Where are you from?’ – ‘Welcome’ – the city’s complexity was palpable.

Perhaps the most impressive and perfect day was the private boat trip on the Bosphorus, punctuated by a visit to the Sakip Sabanci Museum, and an excellent lunch. We were fortunate, yet again, in our guide, Dr Murat Belge. His drily witty commentary explained the palaces, forts and wooden yalis that line each side of the water, the catalogue of past idylls punctured by tales of raging fires or the occasional arrival of a Russian freighter crashing into the bedrooms. What other civilisations build special places from which to contemplate the moon on the water? To

see Istanbul from the Bosphorus provided a new perspective after the heat and clamour of the city streets, as did the successive calls to prayer as we returned south, observed from Asia by a solitary stork. In the Sabanci Museum, there was an unexpected exhibition of Bronze Age artefacts, from the Cyclades and the Asian coast; on the top floor, reached by the determined and especially curious, were some stunning installations by Sophie Calle. In ‘Voir La Mer’, Calle records on video the first encounter of a number of Istanbul people – including the elderly, and children – with the sea. I still

recall the purity and simplicity of these contemporary yet timeless images, as well as the beauty of the shapes and designs from the ancient cultures from each side of the Bosphorus. ‘If the city speaks of defeat, destruction, deprivation, melancholy and poverty’ (Orhan Pamuk) ‘the Bosphorus sings of life, pleasure and happiness’.

Inevitably, the great buildings and museums dominate the memory, including the grandiose, imperial spaces of the British Consulate, where the Crimean campaign was planned, the exotic décor of the restored Pera Palace Hotel, the cool depths of the cisterns, the slightly unnerving architecture of the Topkapi Palace. But the more individual voices and visions displayed in the Biennal exhibition of contemporary art, although I resisted them at the time, have stayed with me. These multiform works inspired by, or responding to, the oeuvre of Cuban-born artist, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, seemed at first sight a little tangential, housed within brutal grey containers in two shoreline warehouses. They were fluently and intelligently introduced to us, but they did not necessarily reveal themselves as part of the same aesthetic experiences we had been enjoying. Nevertheless, they have remained in my mind, not least because of their social and political dimension: the photographs of daily rural life in

Trysha Hunt’s arresting image of the Galata Tower in

Istanbul, with brutal machinery alongside beautiful

architecture, portrays the relationship between the

modern and the traditional within Turkey today.

Trysha has won first prize in the contest to find the single

image that best reflected the Friends’ visit.

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The Friends bid farewell to Michael HarrisonThe Friends of Kettle’s Yard were founded over 25 years ago and for 19 of those years we have had the good fortune to have Michael Harrison as Director.

Michael has always been extremely generous with his time for the Friends. His management style may be quiet but he knows what he wants to achieve and works tirelessly to achieve it – well illustrated by his recent success in leading the campaign to raise funds for the new education centre. He recognises the value of an active and supportive friends group and it is much to Michael’s credit that the relationship between the Friends and Kettle’s Yard has remained so harmonious.

I think that his achievements are well summarised by Elisabeth Swan, Jim Ede’s daughter: “Michael has saved Kettle’s Yard and retained Jim’s vision while at the same time Kettle’s Yard has become recognised internationally as an important arts centre.”

We are all sad to see Michael retiring but he has done so with typical generosity, to allow the new director to have time to plan for the launch of the new education wing. Furthermore, it would have been impossible for him to combine the post of Director with the enormous task that he was unexpectedly given as the executor of Victor Skipp’s estate, recently bequeathed to Kettle’s Yard. Fortunately, he and his wife Marie Claude plan to stay in Cambridge so there will be many opportunities for the Friends to keep in touch and we wish them all the best for the future.

Alan Munro, Chair of the Friends

Book and Print sale raises £2,110 for Kettle’s YardGrateful thanks go to all the Friends who donated books and prints for the sale in September and to all those who attended on the day. This is a great result and very heartening for the team of volunteers from the Events Committee who organised and ran the sale. Thanks also to Michael Harrison who did more than his fair share of lugging crates of heavy books!

Anatolia, the Mexican fabric recreated into an image of the Bosphorus, the ranks of toy soldiers representing the armies of the Middle East. Again, in the Arter Foundation, we had the opportunity to see the Mesopotamian Dramaturgies of Kutluğ Ataman. One might question the given explanation, but the ‘Pursuit of Happiness’, a video portrait of a woman from a village in Eastern Turkey hoping to find a perfect husband (‘really a metaphor for Eastern Civilization’s problematic marriage with the West’) had humour, pathos and a sense of distinctive and yet representative individuality. These voices and images helped to anchor the almost overwhelming richness of the week’s experience. As the fleet of taxis dispersed into the Cambridge night, the silence of Midsummer Common offered both a calming welcome and a certain diminution.

Peter Raby

Turkish Delights continued

John Freer (1929-2011) an appreciation

John, who died this summer, was an enthusiastic and active member of the Friends, serving on the Events Committee for many years.

John’s great love of all things Spanish came into its own when he organised a memorable trip to Toledo and Madrid for the Friends. He was also on hand to help others with the organising of ambitious trips both at home and abroad. Gradually, John took over responsibility for the administrative back-up and finances of the events programme, acting as both

secretary and treasurer simultaneously, roles that had previously been undertaken by two people.

That says much about John’s capabilities and his willingness to help a cause in which he believed so passionately. His 40 years experience in the computer industry, much of it at senior management level, proved incredibly valuable to the Friends and the other causes he supported in retirement.

John became a real rock for the dozen committee members who came to rely on his diligent and patient approach to sorting out often complicated budgetary and other practical issues on their behalf. He ran a tight ship but never complained when presented with less than lucid expense details from far-flung places. As secretary, he made light work of the often thankless task of taking and writing up the minutes in a clear, succinct way. Some of the more heavy-going moments of committee meetings were invariably lifted by his humour.

John was a generous host, together with Eileen, at the suppers that followed meetings at their house in Balsham. These were timed for the summer months to ensure his fellow members could best appreciate their magnificent garden. His talent for growing vegetables in particular was enough to turn one green with envy!

John was so much more than a loyal fellow committee member, he was a charming, thoughtful man whose quiet, authoritative manner, warmth and concern for others will be greatly missed by all involved with Kettle’s Yard. He was quite literally the backbone of the Friends for many years and those who were lucky enough to work alongside him owe him a great debt of gratitude, as does Kettle’s Yard itself. Our thoughts and warmest wishes go to Eileen and all the family.

Martin Thompson